A Day of Reckoning for the White Academy
We want to congratulate our very own Dr. Tara Nkrumah on her latest publication in Cultural Studies of Science Education. This piece entitled: A Day of reckoning for the white academy: Reframing success for African American women in STEM, is coauthored by Dr. Terrell R. Morton, an assistant Professor of Identity and Justice in STEM Education at the University of Missouri. In this piece Nkrumah and Morton reflect on critical frameworks that have been designed to rethink mainstream ideologies so that we may all advance and enhance the lived experiences of Black women in STEM. These frameworks include intersectionality, critical race feminism, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the concept of resistance. Together, they analyze the ways these frameworks have been consistently applied inadequately when it comes to Black women in STEM and they challenge other academics to ensure they are properly and explicitly naming the sociopolitical-historical nature of racism and sexism. They end the piece by noting that "None of these frameworks “can breathe” if they are “strangled” by a paradigm of whiteness."
We are very proud of the work and research that Dr. Nkrumah continues to put forward and the impact it has on our fellow colleagues in STEM education as well as the girls of color that may be included in a world that has for so long deterred them from participating.
You can read the abstract to the article below.
Abstract:
This paper is in dialogue with Danielle Ferguson and Catherine Martin-Dunlop’s paper, Uncovering stories of resilience among successful African American women in STEM. The purpose of this article is to extend conversations on Black women in STEM, focusing on radical transformations of STEM by centering (and normalizing) their voices and experiences. Understanding the necessity of taking a critical perspective toward unpacking the lived experiences of Black women in STEM, we seek resistance and justice, moving beyond the notion of coping that promotes individual reform. To foster critical perspectives, we offer resistance frameworks that disrupt mainstream positionings of Black women.
